Former OHS standout Humphrey did well this year at Louisville
Jun. 16—Isaac Humphrey knew he wasn't ready to play major college baseball when he arrived at the University of Louisville as a freshman. The former standout for Owensboro High School redshirted for the 2021 season.
"Being post-COVID, some guys came back who normally wouldn't, I saw the writing on the wall for being able to get on the field, but I needed to be redshirted," Humphrey said. "I was not prepared to play college baseball."
The year off to get stronger, better at the plate and more confident in how he could contribute paid dividends in a major way this spring.
Humphrey became a fixture as a starter in right field for U of L, which reached the NCAA Tournament Super Regional at Texas A&M. Humphrey had 58 starts as the Cardinals went 42-21-1. Louisville went 0-2 at Texas A&M to finish its season.
"It hurt a lot, we're right there," Humphrey said of losing a pair of one-run games. "Coach Mac made a comment we're a couple of swings here and there from winning those two games, but we got the program back where needed to be, had a really good year."
Coach Dan McDonnell has built a consistent, high-level winner at Louisville, and it was looking at this season to return to the heights reached in 2019 and 2017 when each of those teams won more than 50 games and reached the College World Series.
"This team, it was really special," Humphrey said. "We had a different group of guys, we had some that experienced winning in 2019, and some guys from 2020, and we had guys my age that hadn't seen that yet. I think those older guys brought us together, Mac talked about resetting the standard to get Louisville baseball back where had been in the past.
"Our language and how we go about things is to do that. Every team meeting, we're talking about the culture. We want to get better every day."
That was what Humphrey himself had to concentrate on after not seeing game action except for last summer in a college league in Albany, New York, since the 2019 season at OHS. The 2020 high school spring sports seasons we knocked out because of COVID-19.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder throws left and bats left. He was looking for playing time in his redshirt freshman season and thought he could contribute in some way.
"The biggest thing was my confidence level," Humphrey said. "I knew how much work I had put in, I knew I was finally ready and able to play, I knew I would be able to make the jump."
Humphrey started off well, then cooled off some for a month, but made adjustments at the plate and was playing his best baseball the last month of the season.
His fielding was strong all year, and he threw out a couple of runners at home plate. He made a big-time throw from deep in right at A&M, holding a runner at third.
Humphrey finished with a .328 batting average, third on the team, and he had 15 doubles and five home runs. He was part of a 7-8-9 batting order that produced well throughout the season. Humphrey was in the 7 hole, Logan Beard in the 8 and Ben Bianco in the 9. Bianco was a fifth-year player who had 11 home runs and 52 RBIs.
"We have a little joke where the 7-8-9 really stuck together," Humphrey said. "As the season went on, we realized how it was going to be, where we were in the lineup, and we said we've got to flip the batting order, we had one of the better 7-8-9 hitters in the country. You don't see a lot of other teams that have good numbers at the bottom. Bianco, he embraced it."
Humphrey will now be going to the Cape Cod League to play for the Orleans Firebirds this summer. He's leaving after this weekend.
"I think this will be a big thing for me," Humphrey said. "Preparing for next season starts now, this summer. I'm not taking a lot of time off, focusing on getting a little better in several different areas. Mac wanted me to relax this summer playing. I get to where I'm really tight at the plate. I want to go up there and find a new way to play — relaxed but at a high level."
